


Loki's Christmas Carol

by Mikill



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: A Christmas Carol, Avengers - Freeform, Christmas, Fix-It, Gen, Marvel - Freeform, Thor - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 11:33:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17161241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikill/pseuds/Mikill
Summary: Loki's quiet solitude in his cell finds an unexpected end when three women visit him to open his eyes to the past and warn him of what is still to come.





	Loki's Christmas Carol

 

Loki was reading a book. Not at all unusual. These days he had little else to occupy his restless mind with. For almost a year now he had been living - if one could call it living - in solitary confinement in Asgard’s dungeons. A prisoner. He had been a king – now he was a prisoner. Every time he thought about it, his whole body burned with hatred for Odin and Thor. For lying to him. For not accepting him. For making it impossible to live up to their impossible standards and never even telling him that it was a hopeless endeavor, or why it was so. For fighting him. For putting him in this wretched cell. The hatred burned so intensely, it consumed all else and coherent thought ceased.

 

He put the book away, more forcefully than necessary, and glowered at his prison walls. The magic surrounding them was strong. Loki knew. He had tried to find a way to escape as soon as he was deposited there, but soon realized that he could not. Moreover, the cell also prevented him from using his magic as he pleased, suppressing it. This oppressive magic seemed to be everywhere, pressing down on him, making his chest feel painfully constricted, at times threatening to overwhelm and drown him. 

 

Loki rubbed his fingers together, feeling a small rush of magic emanate from them, perhaps enough for the simplest of illusions, but little more, which only added fuel to the burning rage within him.

 

But as he glowered at the prison walls, he noticed that something had changed. The room seemed darker, even more bleak than usual. And colder. Was his mind starting to play tricks on him?

 

His eyes darted to the guards, but they did not seem to notice anything was amiss. Was it really just his imagination?

 

But no, the temperature was clearly dropping. Only a bit at a time, but soon it was cold enough for Loki to see his own breath. 

 

Loki got up from his bed and looked about the room. He observed frost creeping up the barrier of his holding cell, and a pitcher full of water, that his mother had organized him, began to freeze.

 

Panic began to well up inside of him, but he was not yet willing to call for the guards, not yet willing to admit how truly help- and defenseless he was in his cramped-up cell.

 

The room grew darker as well, and it seemed like a heavy fog was collecting on the ground, seemingly coming out of nowhere. What was this? An attack? Thanos, perhaps?

 

Foggier yet, and colder. Piercing, searching, biting cold.

 

Then, out of the fog, stepped a woman, more beautiful than any woman Loki had ever seen. Her hair shimmered like silver, her eyes shone a deep crystal blue. Her beauty, however, did nothing to calm Loki. How did she get into the cell? Why were the guards not reacting?

 

“Who are you?” he asked, his voice sounding more poised than he really felt. To say that he was not startled, or that his blood was not conscious of a terrible sensation would be untrue.

 

“They call me Urðr,” replied the woman, her voice calm and cold.

 

A nervous laugh escaped Loki’s lips. “Urðr? Right…”

 

“You dare laugh at me?” she hissed.

 

“I am - quite obviously, I might add - hallucinating,“ Loki replied evenly. 

 

The panic he had been feeling slowly left him as he realized that his imagination could do him no real harm. And surely this could not be anything else. He let his gaze wander to the other cells, the other prisoners, then the guards, but none seemed to pay him any mind. If they had not noticed the strange presence in his room, then it was mostly likely because he was the only one seeing her.

 

“I assure you, I am not a hallucination,” she replied coolly.

 

“Rrright,” he drawled. “It is far more likely that one of  _the_ Norns is paying me a visit than that I am losing my mind.”

 

“So, you have heard of me?” she asked, either not noticing or simply choosing to ignore the sarcasm in his last statement.

 

“Urðr, Verðandi and Skuld – the most famous of the Norns,” Loki replied, “of course I have heard of you. You spin the threads of life, cut marks in the pole figures and measure people's destinies. You are always present when a child is born and decide its fate.” This was so ridiculous, it had to be a hallucination. 

 

Loki studied her, then his gaze fell on the book he had been reading earlier. He considered throwing it at her, proving that she was in fact not really physical.

 

“Do not mock me,” she said. “I am here, and I am real.”

 

How did she know what he was thinking? Wasn’t that just further evidence that she was something his mind had come up with?

 

“You don’t believe in me,” she observed.

 

“I don’t,” he agreed.

 

“What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?”

 

“I don’t know,” he replied. As the Norn associated with the past, he could of course ask her questions about his life, but answering them correctly would not prove that she was not merely a hallucination. Moreover, there was absolutely nothing he could ask her that his mind could not answer just as well as Fate itself could.

 

“Why do you doubt your senses?”

 

“I know that those who spend a prolonged time in solitary confinement sometimes start to… hallucinate… I just never pictured it happening to me,“ he mused.

 

“You always think yourself so special, when you really are not.”

 

Apparently, his mind was turning against him, insulting him. “What’s that supposed to mean?“ he hissed.

 

“Arrogant and easily offended,“ she shook her head. “You think you are better than those around you, which really is not the case at all.“

 

“If I am of such little consequence,“ he growled, “why visit me?”

 

“My sisters and I are able to see and influence destiny-“

 

“So, all of this,” he gestured around him, “is your fault?”

 

“-but not on as grand a scale as you mortals seem to believe,” she finished her sentence curtly, glowering at him. “Do you always blame others for your mistakes and failures?”

 

“Mortals?” scoffed Loki, choosing to ignore her question.

 

She sighed. “You do have such a thing as free will, which limits our ability to influence certain events,” she continued. “But we are able to see the past as well as the future, and what we have seen worries us greatly. The end of the universe as we know it. Millions of lives lost. The end of Yggdrasil.”

 

“And what, pray tell, does this have to do with me?” Loki asked. He hastily added, “your mighty Goddess,” when she glared at him.

 

“We have decided to influence the course of history. Avert this tragic fate. We identified you as a key factor in the events that will come to unfold and keep you from following the path you are treading on.”

 

“But I thought I was _inconsequential_ ,“ Loki replied dryly.  _The end of Yggdrasil?_

 

“Not inconsequential. A tiny gear in the machinery that makes up the universe. No more or less important than any of the other pieces. No more or less able to do great good - or great evil.“

 

“Oh, so you are here to show me the errors of my ways?” Loki asked, rolling his eyes. Perhaps not a hallucination, then, but an illusion? Sent by the All-Father to teach Loki something? How very creative.

 

“In a way,” nodded the woman.

 

“I think I’d rather not,” Loki said, sitting down on his bed.

 

“You do not have a choice,” she said, stepping forward, touching his forehead before he could stop her.

 

“What the-“ Loki jumped up. He was about to say something to this “Urðr”, but he stopped himself when he realized she wasn’t even looking at him. He turned around to follow her gaze. On the bed, was – and he was sure that this was not possible – him. It was rather disconcerting.

 

“What have you done?” he hissed.

 

“Nothing that cannot be undone,” she said. “Now, follow me.” She stepped through the barrier of the cell as if it were not there at all.

 

Loki looked skeptical, but with little else to do and the possibility of escaping this hell, he tentatively reached for the barrier, finding his hand to pass through it. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and stepped through it.

 

But when he opened his eyes again, he was not on the other side of the barrier. No, as he looked around, he only saw a barren wasteland. The cold hit him instantly, making it hard to breathe. It was colder still than it had been in his cell.

 

Loki gulped. He had a very bad feeling about this. “Where are we?“

 

“What do you think?“ She walked towards what looked like an old temple. Somewhere far away, Loki could hear what sounded like a battle.

 

He hesitated to follow her. He stared into the distance. “Jotunheim,“ he finally whispered. Not really a question anymore. Somehow, he knew.


End file.
